March 27, 2017
Source/Burlington County Prosecutor's Office
Peter Grossman, 29, of the 200 block of South 12th Street.
A Philadelphia doctor faces multiple charges after investigators determined he allegedly hacked into the online accounts of multiple women with whom he attended high school in Delran Township, New Jersey, Burlington County prosecutors announced Monday.
Peter Grossman, 29, of South Philadelphia, is accused of illegally gaining access to the password-protected accounts of at least 25 former classmates at Delran High School, where he graduated in 2005.
According to prosecutors, Grossman hacked into the women's cell phone, email, iCloud, Snapfish and Facebook accounts, obtaining passwords using information posted in publicly available portions of their social media profiles.
An investigation was launched after one of the victims approached Delran police last September with suspicions that her email and cell phone had been illegally accessed. Several other women expressed similar concerns.
After developing Grossman as a suspect, authorities executed a search warrant at his residence in the 200 block of South 12th Street in Philadelphia. Analysis of six personal electronic devices with storage capabilities revealed that Grossman made digital copies of 2,000 photographs of his victims, prosecutors said. Among the 25 women seen in the pictures, 12 of them were positively identified.
Grossman is charged with impersonation, theft of identity, invasion of privacy and related counts.
“This case presents an excellent warning concerning passwords, and why they must be complex in order to withstand attempts by hackers and anybody else to gain access to private accounts,” Prosecutor Bernardi said. “Using the name of a child or some other known personal detail will often result in a password that is vulnerable to being hacked."
